Can anyone really take Sinn Fein seriously?

Dotsey wrote: »

as opposed to the econmically literate Fianna Fail and of course Fine Gael who plan to privatise the whole health system and force everyone into paying the Vhi and the likes for cover is it?

Not to mention selling off every asset we have left, the money from which would just go straight to paying off the IMF and ECB.

Sinn Féin might not have the best economic policies, but I would sooner take them seriously over any Fianna Fáil cronie. And before any Fine Gaeler's step in - they're just as corrupt.

I don't think this is about economic policies anyway, I think for people like the OP this is about Sinn Féin's connection to the IRA, which is fair enough. But if you want to go back far enough, FF, FG and Labour all have violent pasts.

For me personally, the reason I take Sinn Féin seriously is because as a Repulican they're the only party actively seeking a United Ireland, and as a Socialist they're the only party calling for an alternative to the IMF/EU bailout and are actually representing the average Joe rather than their own narrow interests.

andrewire wrote: »

An alternative to the IMF bailout, such as... ?

Such as defaulting on the bank debt and only restructuring our soverign debt, and over a period of 6 or 7 years instead of the 4 years proposed by Fianna Fáil. Before the bailout most will have argued that we can't let the banks fail because we'll lose all our money etc etc, but since the bailout there is no longer any difference between defaulting on the bank debt and accepting the bailout - either way we're losing money, but with the bailout we'll be paying it off for years to come.

andrewire wrote: »

The problem with SF is that they have no policies. They like to say NO to everything.

Of course they have policies, read their website and you'll see their manifestos.

andrewire wrote: »

Whoever mentions the nonsense of a 'United Ireland' should read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland_sovereignty_referendum,_1973

And whoever links to the 1973 referendum clearly hasn't a clue. That referendum was boycotted by the Nationalist community and only Unionists voted in it, its not valid.

Its widely accepted that the elections in the North are a de facto referendum on a United Ireland. So if you want an idea of support for it, Nationalist parties got 45% of the vote in the last election, while Unionist parties got 49%.

So unless you can come up with a valid reason for dismissing the idea of a United Ireland other than a wikipedia link to the 1973 void referendum, then I'd stop digging yourself a hole by calling it "nonsense", because its anything but.